Rathindra Bose, Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School,
called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m. Jackson moved approval of the September
13, 2004 minutes with the following correction: In the second paragraph under
“Announcements”, “etc.” will be added after the word
“responsibility” in the last sentence. Waas seconded the motion
which carried unanimously.

New Business

Waas nominated Miranda to serve on the Libraries Advisory Committee for 2004-2005
as a replacement for Swanson who is now serving as Vice Chair of the Graduate
Council. Changnon seconded the nomination which was unanimously accepted.

Old Business

Summer Research and Artistry: Bose reported that the guidelines for
soliciting proposals for next summer’s research and artistry proposals
were distributed to the Research and Artistry Committee members for feedback,
slight revisions were made, and the guidelines have subsequently been sent out
to all departments.

Presidential Research Professorship nominations: Bose reported that
he has meet with the Presidential Research Professorship committee members and
that modifications have been made to the nomination process in an attempt to
equalize the process across all disciplines. Specifically, vitas listing publications
with multiple authors need to indicate the nominee’s role as author, nominees
will need to provide no more than three outside letters of recommendation provided,
and the committee will select and solicit up to three additional letters from
experts in the nominee’s field of research for all finalists.

Announcements

The committee members next discussed continuing to work on solving the various
issues raised during the meeting with the college deans last August. Willis
reported that she met with various department chairs and directors of graduate
studies on October 1, 2004, to discuss issues relative to graduate school administration.

Willis summarized the issues raised as dealing with the Web site (need for
an electronic template for programs of courses on web site, and links to department’s
graduate web page), application issues (NIU’s current computer system
makes it difficult to be more efficient, hopefully PeopleSoft will be able to
streamline the process in the near future), things departments would like to
do on their own (late schedule updates, tuition waivers), the requirement for
continuous registration through the summer, English proficiency requirements,
and the timely processing of tuition waivers. Willis reported that she will
continue to work on these issues with the various departments.

Several committee members offered further clarification on some of the above-mentioned
issues. Regarding continuous registration through the summer semester for students
enrolled in thesis or dissertation hours, it was explained that the Graduate
Council is not the ultimate authority on this issue, and that further discussion
will be needed. This issue will be sent to the Graduate Council Standards Committee
for its review.

The English proficiency requirements, especially for MBA and teacher certification
programs, were discussed by Yale, Waas and other committee members. Bose has
asked the International Student and Faculty Office to solicit information from
other institutions relative to English proficiency requirements for international
students that have not graduated from an English speaking institution but who
are working in the United States.

Issues related to advising, monitoring student progress, and timely graduation
were discussed at length. Carnahan reported a monitoring mechanism practiced
in the Chemistry Department which he is willing to share with those interested.
Carnahan to forward forms to the Graduate School for distribution to interested
individuals.

Regarding tuition waivers, Bose announced that a memo recently went out to
all departments explaining the various types of tuition waivers and that the
Graduate School’s Recruitment Office will now be handling all tuition
waivers.

The committee members next discussed the issue of the need for departments
to submit students’ programs of courses as early as possible, particularly
for international students.

Bose next reported that he is currently working to launch a “test”
of an electronic admissions process with a couple of departments in the near
future.